Devon secures funding to create more nursery places

Devon County Council has successfully bid for capital funds from the Department for Education to create more nursery places for three and four year olds.

The funding enables local authorities to deliver additional places under the new extended entitlement by September 2017.

Entitled families who meet the criteria set by the Department for Education will be able to take 30 hours of funded provision a week during term time or they can stretch the entitlement across the year to fit with their working hours. Altogether these families will have 1140 hours of funded early education and care that they can take at a nursery, preschool or with a funded childminder.

Cllr James McInnes, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for Education, said: “This funding will make a huge difference to many families in Devon. All the projects will be delivering a flexible offer to working families throughout the year enabling parents to choose how they want to use their funded time to fit their working patterns.”

Three and four year olds that are not eligible for the extended entitlement will continue to have 570 hours of early education funding.

There will be 39 places in new buildings at Lympstone Preschool, West Croft School in Bideford and Whipton Barton Infants and Nursery School in Exeter. Chudleigh School will provide 26 places in purpose built premises on the school site and Cranbrook Education Campus will repurpose space in the school to offer 21 new places. Chudleigh is the only school where provision for three and four year olds is not already being made. None of the schools currently offer year-round places.

Information on the Extended Entitlement will soon be available on the Devon County Council website and Early Years and Childcare Service Facebook page